Private Aggressive Archeology

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Inanna Harth

“Well, we are dressed up like Imperials…”

"And if we hadn't been, then they would have tried to kill us." Gatz snorted in return.

Inanna passed him his lightsaber then (he still had no idea where she'd hidden it, did she have a secret pouch somewhere) and he ignited its artificial blue blade, letting the light wash over the dark vault. He stepped carefully over some crumpled piece of scrap metal—only to then blink and double-take when he realized that was the turret that had just shot at him.

Damn. He'd done that? To durasteel? With his mind?

Maybe he was doing better than he thought.

But there was little time to bask in his achievement in destruction. Most of what remained in the vault was destroyed, but what wasn't had to be appropriated and ferried away from the Imperials. His master took the most obvious treasure: a glowing green holocron. So Gatz turned to pilfer through the less exciting things: a few texts that weren't entirely moldy, a couple of odd looking knickknacks, and something that looked like a protosaber.

With only two hands, Gatz couldn't possibly take it all. So he chose to go with the ancient texts, hoping some Jedi smarter than him might be able to gleam something from it. With his bounty in hand, he snooped through that vault until he found his way back to Inanna.

"Well, I don't see a place to check them out, but the best thing in here might be these old books. You think the librarian is gonna be pissed?"

 

[Inanna Harth]

In addition to the holocron, Inanna grabbed an ancient looking sword. Despite its size, she somehow managed to stow it somewhere inside her body.

Gatz’s hoard included a protosaber and a bunch of old books. Inanna nodded in approval. “Put those in your pack. You’ll need both hands free on our way out of here.”

But no sooner had they turned to leave, Gatz uttering a quip about angering the librarian, they came face to face with the same Imperial officer from earlier. He stood in their way, flanked by four stormtroopers, all with their blasters trained on Inanna and Gatz.

“I thank you for finding this hidden vault,” the officer said, his tone dripping with fake gratitude. “I’m sure we would’ve discovered it eventually, but you’ve helped the process along. But it has come to my attention that you seem to be pocketing these treasures for yourselves—”

“The vault was empty when we opened it,” Inanna said, once again attempting to trick his mind. “There’s nothing to see here.” It had worked the first time, but would it get them out of this jam again?

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Inanna Harth

Gatz quickly stuffed his pilfered items into his pack. The sooner they were out of here, the better. The longer covert operations went on, the more likely they were to be discovered, and he would really rather not be discovered while they were in the heart of a hostile temple. They still had a whole horde of Imperials to get past, after all, and the last thing he wanted was to be caught red-handed.

He stepped out of the vault with Inanna, and they were caught red-handed.

“The vault was empty when we opened it,” Inanna said, once again attempting to trick his mind. “There’s nothing to see here.” It had worked the first time, but would it get them out of this jam again?

Gatz held his breath, hoping the Force would get them out of the situation it had gotten them into. But when he saw the officer's brow furrow, his knew the jig was up. So he started rapidly thinking of options to get them out of this mess, before they were cut down in a hail of gunfire.

"I might've been inclined to believe you," the officer mocked dryly, "except for the ancient lightsaber sticking out of your cohort's backpack. Men, restrain them."

But the man's sarcastic response had bought Gatz's mind enough time to think. With a clench and a wave of his hand, Gatz ripped the desk up from the ground, and threw it at the soldiers pointing blasters their way. With cries of fear and surprise, they all dove in varying directions, and the desk crashed into ancient shelves, spewing wood, metal, and datacrons in every direction.

"Now would be a very good time to leave!"

 

[Inanna Harth]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

Her second attempt at a mind trick failed. The Imperial officer was not amused. Realizing the danger, Gatz ripped the desk up with the Force and threw it at the officer and his entourage, scattering them.

"Now would be a very good time to leave!"

She didn't need to be told twice. Dashing toward the exit, she was confronted by a startled stormtrooper upon turning the corner. With a flash of yellow, her lightsaber ignited, bisecting him in half before he had the chance to fire a shot.

From there it was a slaughter as the last shreds of stealth fell away, and the two Jedi were now forced to fight their way out.

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Inanna Harth

His plan had, ultimately, failed. They'd tried, and that was more than most would have done, but they were still going to have to kill their way out of here. Gatz let his sorrow bleed out in the Force. He didn't even try to hide it, because he didn't think he could. He was just so tired of killing people. He'd thought he was getting away from that, when he'd returned to the Order.

Instead, Gatz had found that his hands were bloodier than ever.

A blaster was fired in his direction. A flash of his blue plasma blade later, and that same bolt found itself in the head of the man who'd fired it. Gatz may have abhorred killing, but it was still preferrable to dying, and so he got to work not dying. The sound of blaster fire echoed throughout the ancient temple, and he found himself delving deep into the Force just to keep his guard from faltering.

But there were a lot of Imps in this temple. With their facade up, everyone had been alerted to their presence, and the whole of the Imperial presence here was trying to encircle them. As proficient as he was with a lightsaber—and it was the one thing he was exceptional at, instead of remedial—he was starting to have trouble keeping up with the sheer number of projectiles fired his way.

Gatz ripped the protosaber from his pack. It ignited in his hand—a sputtering, unstable orange blade.

He wasn't particularly proficient at Jar'Kai, but Valery had taught him enough to know that each lightsaber was a mirror of the other, and not a separate entity. Against a Sith, or another Jedi, he'd have been disarmed like a toddler. But against a bunch of idiots with blasters? Two lightsabers was more than enough to keep them, and their blaster fire, at bay.

"Do you see the door yet?" Gatz half shouted, half panted, "because this isn't nearly as easy as I'm making it look!"

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna didn't have the same qualms about killing the enemy that Gatz did, perhaps because she had become accustomed to death over the course of her long life. But she was aware of her apprentice's feelings, his guilt and regret lingering at the back of her mind. There was little she could do to help him. In her experience, this was something one had to come to terms with on their own. Only he could decide how he wanted to proceed.

"Do you see the door yet?"

Gatz's shout reached her from some distance away. She had just thrown her lightsaber, using telekinesis to guide the blade as it spun through the air, cutting down a trio of stormtroopers.

"Yes!" she shouted after a moment, having spotted the entrance they had entered through. Imperials were running outside, trying to escape the Jedi... or plotting an ambush. "There are more of them out there waiting for us. Prepare yourself!" After giving her Padawan a warning, she sped ahead, slaying more troopers as she headed for the exit.

Gatz Derrevar​

 

[Gatz Derrevar]

Ship: The Red Night
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Inanna Harth

"There are more of them out there waiting for us. Prepare yourself!"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" His exasperation was apparent, "come on guys! We were just here for some ancient knowledge!"

Gatz was really beginning to wish he'd learned Shien over Soresu. It was a lot better suited to deflecting blaster bolts precisely, compared to Form III's preference to just deflect them anywhere but his own face. Then again, as clumsy as he was at Jar'kai, he wasn't sure it'd have made much of a difference.

I really should have asked Briana Sal-Soren for that holocron she made...

As a stray shot whizzed past his cheek, having found a hole in his guard, Gatz decided that maybe focusing on surviving the day took precedent over mulling over regrets. He could lambast himself for being short-sighted later. Once he'd actually, like, ensured that there would be a later.

Gatz stepped out out the old temple behind his master, orange and blue blades a tempest that left only death in its wake—yet another regret to mull over, assuming he survived the next couple of minutes.

Apparently R4's circuits were conducting properly today, because he already had The Red Night spun up. She might have been missing her colors, and she might have had a dead thruster, but that old droid still had her hovering off the ground so that no Imperial could board it. He'd even had the foresight to lower the ramp, so that Gatz and Inanna could launch themselves up to it.

Gatz did just that, allowing the Force to carry him far over the heads of the men trying to gun them down. When his feet landed on the boarding ramp, he let out a sigh of relief, before turning to address the invaders.

"Gentleman! I'd say it's been a pleasure... but you shot at us." Exhausted or not, Nar Shaddaa had taught him to always get in the last word. "Have fun explaining this to your superiors!"